Bollywood is taking a bold stance

If you make a tally of the recent releases, you will notice that Bollywood is taking a bold stance when it comes to tackling sexual depictions. Bollywood is now daring to treat the topic of sexual norms with more openness and audacity. So far, Bollywood's standpoint was restricted to tried and tested formula of extra-marital affairs. But off late Bollywood is trying to break free of all the customs and in a way bearing a new perception

In 1998, Deepa Mehta's FIRE created such a huge furor throughout this country. It was the first film in India that portrayed lesbianism. Before that, Bollywood never attempted the issue of alternate sexuality and hence FIRE was received with much hostility. In the same year it was Kaizad Gustad's low budget but a credible film BOMBAY BOYS hit the screens. In the film the Indo-Brit character Xerxes played by Alexander Gifford was shown as a gay. The film has some great performances from its lead cast that included Naseeruddin Shah accompanied by a funky soundtrack.

In 2004, there was Karan Razdan's GIRLFRIEND, that had the characters of Amrita Arora and Isha Koppikar entwined in a same sex relationship. This film too had too face some brief outburst from certain sections of the society.

Last year's acclaimed film MY BROTHER NIKHIL showed Sanjay Suri's character coming to terms with his own sexuality. This was Onir Ban's directorial debut and he subtly dealt with the topic of HIV/AIDS and same sex liaison.

Mahesh Bhatt's KALYUG saw actress Amrita Singh's comeback to celluloid after a long hiatus. In the film Amrita Singh is the entrepreneur of a big international po*n market, whose daughter is a lesbian.

And now, Bollywood takes a step further. Rajat Kapur's much appreciated film MIXED DOUBLES shows a couple going off-way to spice up their married life. The husband (Ranvir Shorey) suggests partner swapping to his wife (Konkona Sen Sharma) and the experiment just excuses the audience for some smart humor and first-rate performances. The film deftly deals with the subject of marital boredom.

Before this film, Abbas-Mustan had efficiently tackled the matter of spouse swapping in AJNABEE. The film starred Akshay Kumar, Bipasha Basu along with Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor. The film was a decent show at the box-office and had good music scored by Anu Malik.

Is Bollywood defying the traditional norms that remain unchallenged so far? Will this transition see a new phase in Hindi cinema? While topics like alternate sexuality and spouse swapping is not a new proposition for Hollywood, it is a different territory for Bollywood! But the new-age filmmakers are niftier in trying out the options and let's wait and watch whether their swimming against the tide could drag them up to the shore!